Musical Improvisation and Playfulness: Dead Beatles The play of children and the play of ensemble improvisers like the Grateful Dead share numerous co-identifying qualities. Definitions of play and improvisation precede a comparison of the Dead and the Beatles. These two bands have been exhaustively described, but a focus on the quality of play and the…
Take this example for contrast. A woman testifies: I am glad that I own a gun because when that man tried to break into my house, it was that gun that protected me and my baby. It’s hard to dispute this mother’s position and essential role. She is bound in time to this critical, difficult,…
In King Lear, theGodfather of its time, Shakespeare exposes the folly of power through his narrative of it slipping away. Lear’s Fool matches elusive power with a taunting dance of his own. He represents Lear’s conscience, but Lear ignores him. The Fool makes Lear’s madness worse, driving him crazy. He dances on the play’s mushrooming…
In 1895, H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine captured the popular imagination and set the tone for our infinite fascination with time travel. Its attendant gadgetry kept the nerdier fans busy, while others were distracted by the possible and impossible science of it. But the idea of time travelers is more significant. The time traveler, like a cosmic…
I’m all lost in the supermarket, I can no longer shop happily, I came in here for that special offer Guaranteed personality.* I encountered this army of oversized shopping carts. War tanks Armored fighting vehicles The more that you add to them The more they subtract from you. While boasting great prices, Costco and Walmart,…
The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules but by people following the rules. It’s people who follow orders that drop bombs and massacre villages. …Banksy Play is dangerous. I’m remembering The Fight Club and how the film incorporates some aspects of a play revolution but mixed in with…